Marc: Ibogaine Treatment - Part 2

This is part 2 of an in-depth, never seen before, insider observation of a patient's in-hospital ibogaine treatment experience. The entire segment takes place in a hospital in Panama. We watch Marc as he undergoes the powerful psychogenic effects of ibogaine and witness his transformation from addiction to wellness first hand. Throughout, he is fully aware of the deep-rooted life episodes he is re-examining as part of a psychological healing taking place under the influence, and he can verbalize (sometimes challenged for words) the connections between past events and the roots of his own addictive behavior and patterns.



Howard and Norma Lotsof and I hoped this would be a breakthrough video for the addict and scientific communities. By recording a patient's progress some weeks before treatment, during the crucial 24-36 hours of actual treatment, and following them on their post treatment psychotherapy and medical follow-up for several weeks, we felt we had demonstrative evidence that the ENDABUSE Treatment was both safe, humane, and efficacious.

Since I had never myself witnessed the entire process, this was a fascinating and eye-opening experience for me. I had never questioned Howard's claims of narcotic withdrawal interruption or the psychological epiphanies patients (including himself) underwent; indeed I had absolute faith in Howard and had heard many people relate their own intimate stories. But I had never seen this first hand myself. The hospital environment was the safest and best way for me to become initiated into the clinical world, and much valuable scientific medical data was simultaneously being recorded and doumented.

Plants as Teachers

The Iboga Association of Capetown, South Africa is a weblog that focuses on the psychotherapeutic use of ibogaine to provide emotional healing. Blogger Simon Loxton is a follower of the Bwiti religion of equatorial Africa (principally Gabon and the Cameroons) as well as a traditional health care practitioner who advocates the use of iboga as both a sacrament and traditional medicine. Iboga is the name of the African plant and its root is the principal source of the powerful psychogenic akaloid ibogaine hydrochloride.

This particular blog entry was written by Sarita who, I assume, is a member of Smon's association. Sarita chronicles various encounters with both the raw botanical and the purified extract and has the worldview that iboga is one of a handful of sacred medicinal plants from the Creator meant as a tool for spiritual enrichment and personal insights.

Sarita does claim to have addictions which may be one of the reasons she sought iboga's anti-addictive properties. Sarita felt addiction "closed my heart chakra" making it impossible to "feel anymore". Iboga is a teacher, and one of the revelations it made was the following:

"One of the teachings which I received through the ibogaine was that there is a certain Order in the Universe, which is Love and it must be respected and understood. We are suppose to be shown and taught this from our Parents but if they do not understand it or live by it then we as children will not understand it…let alone know how to live by it."

Iboga healed Sarita's heart, opening her chakra, allowing a reconnection to others with compassion and openness.

"Now it is as if my whole life has become a teaching and journey and I do not feel the same person. My brain has been reprogrammed and it is as if darkness has been removed from me."

The read Sarita's full account click here.

Marc: Ibogaine Treatment Video - Pt 1/3

This is the first video that shows one patient's complete ibogaine treatment (before, during, and after) with full coverage of their remarkable experience. It is a first-hand glimpse of the powerful ability of ibogaine to interrupt methadone withdrawal symptoms and addictive craving within 24 hours. The treatment took place in a Panamanian hospital under the supervision of medical doctors with the complete cooperation of Panama's government and health system. This is Part 1 of a 3 part series.


After we completed The ENDABUSE Report video, Howard, Norma and I realized we had to take one step further. A video was needed that documented the entire ibogaine experience, not only from the patient's viewpoint, but from medical and social worker perspectives as well. We needed to show the whole process and dramatically demonstrate the patient's odyssey from sickness to wellness.

Howard formed an alliance with Dr. Eduardo Della Sera, an addiction treatment specialist in Panama. Dr. Della Sera was able to obtain the cooperation of the Panamanian government and the medical establishment to allow human clinical studies to be conducted at a hospital in Panama City.

Eventually, several patients would be treated in Central America. We needed one who would consent to be videotaped and who would allow us access for several months. Marc came forward, a young man in his 20s who had a history of heroin addiction and subsequent methadone treatment. He had undergone the ENDABUSE Procedure previously and now needed another treatment as he had relapsed back into addiction.

We filmed Marc in New York, a couple of weeks before he flew to Panama. The video speaks for itself as far as depicting Marc's mental and physical condition at that moment in time. The most important footage is of his actual hospital experience, from his taking the ibogaine capsule to his ongoing description of his hallucinogenic revelations concerning his life in relationship to his addiction.

We followed Marc back to New York and obtained testimony from his psychotherapist about his recovery and his support group interaction. Dr. Della Sera also discusses the interruption of Marc's methadone addiction and observes that ibogaine is a powerful tool in the treatment of drug dependency.

As a filmmaker, the experience of making this video with the Lotsofs was a personal milestone. Every human being longs for some kind of immortality, whether it be through their offspring, their relationships, or their achievements. This project was a vehicle to do something meaningful that would benefit many people, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity.

Meeting God on Ibogaine

When I lived in Los Angeles for a couple of years, my favorite counter-cultural rag was The L.A. Weekly which borrowed the style and format of NY's Village Voice. This rag had the edge of leftist journalism with tons of ads touting the west coast music scene and hip youth-oriented shops, with the obligatory escort services and skin trade crap.

Way back in 2003, The L.A. Weekly published an article by Daniel Pinchbeck, the author of "Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey Into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism". I know this was a while ago, but this was an article with a decidedly spiritual bent that I felt was important to share.

Daniel Pinchbeck reminds me of John C. Lilly, inventor of the isolation tank and author of one of my favorite psychedelic spiritual accounts, "The Center of the Cyclone". Lilly took pharmaceutical grade (99% pure) LSD and went into his tank for hours to have profound metaphysical experiences as a self-proclaimed "psychonaut".

Pinchbeck sought out the ibogaine experience, traveling to Gabon, Africa to participate in the sacred native Bwiti initiation ceremony that uses a huge dose of raw botanical iboga root to induce a psychogenic hallucinatory state.

Pinchbeck writes: "It was one of the most difficult, yet rewarding, experiences of my life. I had heard the substance described as "10 years of psychoanalysis in a single night," but of course, I did not believe it. As the African tribesmen played deafening drums and sang around me until dawn, I lay on the temple's concrete floor and journeyed back through the entire course of my past up to that point, witnessing forgotten scenes from childhood. The experience lasted more than 20 hours. At one point, I was shown my habitual overuse of alcohol and the effect it was having on my relationships, my writing and my psyche. When I returned to the U.S., I steadily reduced my drinking to a fraction of its previous level — an adjustment that seems to be permanent."

Years later, he traveled to Mexico for his second ibogaine experience, but this time something unexpected happened. As described by many others, he had an encounter with "the spirit of Iboga" in the form of a Black man.

"I saw a black man in a 1940s-looking suit. He was holding the hand of a 5-year-old girl and leading her up some stairs. I understood that the girl in the vision was me, and the man represented the spirit of iboga. He was going to show me around his castle."

He asked this man many questions about his life, what he saw during his experience, and the spirit voice resonated in his head with emphatic and succinct statements, like shouted exhortations. He was taken on a spiritual journey and met God or Buddha or Mohammed. The spirit told him he had once taken human form -- "ALREADY DID THAT!"

I want to admit that I have never taken ibogaine. Not that there wasn't an opportunity to do so; there were many. I have never had any addictions nor any destabilizing traumas that inflicted deep psychological wounds needing to be healed. No, I simply befriended Howard and Norma Lotsof at NYU in the 1970s and saw an opportunity to help Howard and, in so doing, help others as well. So, I've set the record straight. I am an observer, not a participant, when it comes to the ibogaine experience. I hope you feel this does not invalidate my wanting to write about and promote the use of a psychedelic substance that has the power to liberate people from themselves, their own inner demons.

I urge you to read Daniel Pinchbeck's article, "Turn On, Meet God, Get Straight". It's one heck of a ride well worth taking.